Fox News Airs Montage Of Harris Bragging About Her Progressive Agenda
Vice President Kamala Harris is undergoing a transformation from a staunchly left-wing figure to a centrist, with significant support from mainstream media in obscuring her past, similar to the assistance given to President Joe Biden.
On Fox News' "The Five," hosts criticized Democrats and the mainstream media's reaction to Harris stepping up as the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee following Biden's decision to suspend his re-election campaign.
“There’s not going to be any pushback from the entrenched corporate media, and they’re going to try to re-rewrite history, and they’re going to try to present her [Harris] as something that she’s just not,” co-host Dana Perino remarked.
Here's an excerpt from the segment:
PERINO: “But Harris might have a hard time rebranding herself as a moderate because of these past statements.”
[Clip starts]
Harris: “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.
There’s no question that we’ve got to critically re-examine ICE. And we need to probably think about starting from scratch.”
MELVIN: “What would you do about the millions of, specifically assault weapons, that are already in circulation?”
Harris: “We have to have a buyback program and I support a mandatory buyback program.”
TAPPER: “You support the Medicare for All bill. I believe it will totally eliminate private insurance. So, for people out there who like their insurance, they don’t get to keep it?”
Harris: “Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”
[Clip ends]
Harris has a long record of problematic staff relations, from her time as a district attorney in San Francisco to her roles as California attorney general and U.S. senator, and now as Vice President.
This issue is now becoming a significant point in her campaign as she moves towards securing the Democratic nomination.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has voiced concerns about Harris’ well-documented difficulties with staff retention, telling Fox News that “nobody lasts very long” while working for her and that “how she treats people around her is a real indication of what she’ll do in the future.”
During his appearance on “Life, Liberty & Levin” this week, McCarthy stated, “Nobody lasts very long. Even as VP, when she didn’t do anything, she could not keep staff. That is a person that the press will never talk about… How she treats people around her is a real indication of what she’ll do in the future.”
He added, “It is known in California, and it’s known in Washington. It is a heroic work environment if you work for her.”
McCarthy also recounted, “When she got elected to the U.S. Senate, I was the Majority Leader. I reached out to meet with her. Not once would she meet with me. If I talked to the Democrats inside the California delegation, they didn’t care for her because she would not meet.”
These remarks follow a report from OpenTheBooks.com, a self-described “government watchdog organization,” which revealed last week that Harris faces a 91.5% staff turnover rate within the Office of the Vice President.
According to payroll records cited by the organization, as of March 31, 2024, only four of the original 47 staffers from Harris' first year as vice president in 2021 remain employed without interruption. Additionally, it notes that 24 staff members left in the year leading up to that date. Currently, Harris reportedly has 50 staffers working for her.
Overall, Harris’ staff turnover rate of nearly 92% exceeds President Biden’s rate of 77% and former President Trump’s rate of 72% during the first four years of their terms, as reported by OpenTheBooks.com.
“It’s always been a problem,” one former Harris aide told The Hill in 2022. “You have to have your people around you.”
Another former staffer commented, “Politics is about relationships, especially the relationships with the people around you. I think there’s a lot of improvement needed there.”
In a past op-ed for The Union newspaper, the father of a former intern for then-California Attorney General Harris highlighted his son Gregory’s “eye-opening experience” while working for her, an experience that “none of us expected.”
“Senator Harris vocally throws around ‘F-bombs’ and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others. The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day,” Terry McAteer wrote.
“As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, ‘Good Morning General,’” he added, mentioning how “Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members.”
Several former staffers of Harris recently criticized her, describing her as a “bully” who often left people in tears after harsh tirades.
These staffers, speaking to author Charlie Spiering for the UK’s Daily Mail, portrayed her as a “soul-destroying bully,” leading to unprecedented staff turnover.
Back in 2010, when she was California attorney general, she was already known for running a “toxic” work environment. Barbara O’Connor, a professor at the University of California-Sacramento, told Spiering that several of her students who interned for Harris “frequently came back to her crying and saying that they ‘felt they weren’t valued.'”